NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-30-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Strikes the U.S. military has been carrying out in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean may have moved to land in line with previous Trump administration warnings. A U.S. official tells NPR that the CIA struck a dock facility in Venezuela. The official also says that the U.S. Coast Guard is still trying to get capabilities to go after a tanker that has been evading them in recent days. This is part of the Trump administration's campaign against what it says are drugboats. Cases of the flu are surging in the United States, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NPR's Gabriella Emmanuel has more. The latest data comes from the period before people gathered for Christmas. It shows a steep increase in cases

and more than 19,000 people were hospitalized for flu in that one week. week, almost twice as many as the previous week. Andrew Peckosch with Johns Hopkins University says the surge started in the northeast. All across the Midwest, you're seeing massive increases in activity as well as to the south. A couple of states out in the West have been spared the activity yet. The strain of flu driving up cases is not a great match for this year's flu vaccine. But experts say the shot provides more protection than no vaccine at all. Gabriela Emmanuel, NPR News.

Russia is threatening to harden its position and negotiations over a ceasefire with Ukraine. Moscow accuses Kiev of attempting a drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin's residences. Ukraine says the Kremlin's making it up to keep the war going. Here's NPR as Joanna Kisissis. Russia's longtime foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, brought it up yesterday in an interview with Interfax, Russia's state-owned news agency, and he claimed without evidence that Ukraine had launched 91 drones at a Putin residence in Novgorod in the northwest, and that Russia's air defense had shot down these drones.

Now, we should say Lovov is not trusted by Western leaders, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately denied Lov's charge and said Russia was inventing this incident to undermine peace talks and expand attacks on Ukraine. A Texas-based firm, Ocean Infinities, resuming a deep-sea search for a long-missing Malaysian airliner. Here's NPR's Jennifer Pack.

Flight MH-370 was on a routine flight from qualitative. Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished with 239 people on board. Among them, American passenger Philip Wood. His partner, Sarah Bejak, says she still needs closure. All of the family members have a right to find out what happened to their loved ones. Malaysian authorities say the plane inexplicably crashed the southern Indian Ocean. The search area is challenging. Picture a mountain range submerged under the ocean sitting in the dark. That's Jennifer Pack reporting. This is NPR. A powerful winter storm is making its way across parts of the upper Midwest and pushing east, just as millions of people prepare to hit the road for the New Year holiday. NPR's Dan Rona

reports, forecasters are warning of dangerous travel conditions. The big winter storm classified as a bomb cyclone started in the upper Midwest with more than a foot of snow and high winds in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and it's heading east. with high winds and frigid temperatures. Christian Schultz and her husband drove to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from northern Wisconsin so they could fly home to Alaska. It took us about four hours to drive down. Roads up north. The plows were out, but they were still pretty snow-packed, slick.

Meteorologists say parts of upstate New York could get up to 10 inches of snow Tuesday and other parts of New England could have an ice storm. Dan Ronan, NPR News. Here come the lap dogs and the terriers and the hounds. As featured online by pet handlers such as Saki Stimu, the American Kennel Club is expanding its roster of 205 fully recognized dog breeds to the Basse Fov de Breton, the Russians fit Naya Bolonka, and the Teddy Roosevelt Terrier, which further opens up competition and public visibility, likely to PETA's dismay.

Earlier this year, the animal rights group, the AKC for allegedly supporting breeding standards that prioritize appearance over an animal's health, the Kennel Club denies the allegations. It's NPR.